RanStacking - EP2 - Cruise Control

YouTube Link

This post went up first on Ninja Blues.

Last time we rescued our slightly larger brother from a life of shovelling coal for the train system.

We move from a train level to a boat level, I think I see where this is going, one sibling per environment but first we have to solve a series of puzzles using our ability to stack and the abilities of the characters we stack into. I don’t see Charlie himself getting any new skills so it all will come down to the puzzles we are presented with and the folks we get to ride. Plus it seems like there is a handy rule of thumb for the number of levels, I am guessing it will be the same as the number of siblings, possibly siblings plus one for a final confrontation with the baron. But does anyone remember how many sibling Charlie has? I certainly don’t.

It also looks like there will be work to do in the hub area before we can move on to the later levels. The game helpfully tells me about some of the hijinks I can now get up to, but I will go into them a bit more next time, when I actually will play around with them a little more.

I should note that as of the time of these posts, all of the Double Fine games are on sale on Steam. I don’t know if it will drop lower during a daily or flash deal but Stacking is available for only $3.39 or your local equivalent

RanStacking - EP1 - A Brief Training Period

YouTube Link

Note: All posts here are going up on Ninja Blues first. So if you want to get the first crack at them you should check them out over there.

I am kicking off a new series with Stacking by Double Fine, which was one of their XBLA titles that eventually made its way to PC. I bought it some time ago but never got around to trying it out. All I could remember when I started this was that it was a puzzle game that involved Matryoshka dolls, so some viewers/readers may be much more familiar with the game than I am.

I was immediately caught out by the art style, I knew it involved dolls, but I didn't really expect it to translate into the entire world being made out of toys and other building materials that emphasize the small size of all of the characters. From playing cards and pins to the occasional incandescent bulb the world really embraces the idea that someone is playing with these toys, someone with a massive collection and a great talent for building things. I am looking forward to see more in this world as the game progresses.

Ranneko Saves The Date

YouTube Link

I have played a bit more Save The Date since the end of this video and it gets a bit more philosophical though I am yet to find a way to "win" that doesn't involve being an awesome hacker.

It is pretty clear that the Chris was trying to say something when he made this game, it feels like a very safe assumption given that Felicia will outright tell you that the creator must have had an idea they want to explore.

To me Save The Date is an exploration of an exercise I think everyone has done at some point. Running back through a day or series of events wondering what you could have done to prevent that big mistake/regret/loss.

In real life this is about as futile as it is in Save the Date, you can't change the past just as you cannot really save Felicia if you go out with her. Instead the game forces disaster at every single turn. In the end the only way to save the date is for it to never take place at all.

Ran of the Ninja - EP12 - The Mark and The Master

YouTube Link

Warning: The following text will contain spoilers for the end of Mark of the Ninja. This probably should be expected for the final episode of a lets play of the game. But given what I am going to talk about is revealed in the last 5 minutes or so I think a spoiler warning is only fair.

I definitely did not see the twist here coming. That Azai was betraying us and something fishy was going on sure, that was pretty obvious, but that our companion was a mark based hallucination was a total surprise. It is the kind of thing that makes me want to go back and see if anyone interacts with her in cutscenes.

I never thought it odd that she always was capable of catching up but never attacked foes for me, because she is an NPC in a game, clearly intended to be a guide character. So that she never helped directly was unsurprising, heck one of the level puzzles revolved around actually helping her get past an obstacle. Something that theoretically was totally unnecessary.

Ultimately I sided with my hallucination not because it was the right thing to do, honestly I am very sympathetic to Azai and his plan to allow the clan to continue. But at this point I figured Mark was completely under the Mark's delusions, after all just how many clan members did he kill to confront Azai? And not just the well equipped stalkers. All of the guards on these levels turn out to be regular ninjas after you kill them and I have no idea how much of a threat they really represented. If I do side with Azai I think I would have to have taken a pacifism based approach to the last level.

I had a great time with Mark of the Ninja, while the keyboard and mouse controls are occasionally frustrating, the light, shadow and noise systems work so well and it is really satisfying working out how to get past a set of guards either through slowly whittling down their numbers or just passing by while they are unaware.

Ultimately I wish I had gotten around to playing this game earlier, when more of my friends were playing it.

Ran of the Ninja - EP11 - Avenging the Artist

YouTube Link

That did not end well for Dosan. But at least we got the final stage of the mark so now we can teleport. This level is definitely meant to make sure that you learn to incorporate this new ability into your repertoire. I found it pretty frustrating because frankly I kept forgetting it was there and you really can't. This level actually took me longer than the previous one, there are a lot of failed attempts on the editing floor.

Found it especially interesting that this level does not let you pick your gear, not even on subsequent playthroughs. This is because the teleport move is actually tied to your outfit, changing to another mask removes your ability to use it and a bunch of the puzzles in this level are impossible (or at least intended to be impossible/fiendishly difficult) without the ability to teleport.

Ran of the Ninja - EP10 - For the Sake of the Artist

YouTube Link

I will admit, I expected to be dealing with Mark's hometown at this point, not some ruin location full of trapped rusting out vehicles and other obstacles. But it does make sense to track down the artist Dosan since he definitely appeared to be on our side and we get to find out more about the mark and its source in the process.

I do not like the trapped cover, mostly because I rarely think to check it out with my fancy sight so it takes me by surprise pretty often, which just means I end up reloading checkpoints even more frequently.

Ran of the Ninja - EP9 - Killing Karajan

YouTube Link

Well, we knew it was coming so this was hardly a surprise the game literally set this moment up from the very second level. I definitely appreciate that Karajan is not shown as a combatant at all. Every time you get close he retreats unless finally he is trapped in a box of his own devising. This was never going to end well for him because he was up against a video game protagonist. Someone who can never lose since they just reload whenever mistakes are made.

Now with that done I am sure that Mark will head back to Ninjatown, commit seppuku and everyone (else) will live happily ever after. It is not like the game has been hinting that your Master has been up to something or anything.

Ran of the Ninja - EP8 - Get To Da Choppa

YouTube Link

Last time we closed in on Karajan he sicked Kelly on us and got away in his chopper. Rather than face that possibility again it is time for Mark to get to the chopper first and ensure it isn't going anywhere.

This level also introduces a challenging new foe, the elite guard, one who is immune to stealth kills unless first disabled. Really inconvenient unless you have been upgrading your distraction items or ninja tools. Fortunately the game also provides us with some handy tools within the level itself to help dispose of some of them and as for the rest of them? Karajan probably should have invested in some gas masks for these guys shouldn't he?

Ran of the Ninja - EP7 - The Vast Stinky Depths

YouTube Link

Turns out that the walls to the castle are too difficult to scale undetected so we have taken a second, deeper route. The castle is somehow built over an abyss full of choking poisonous gas. How charming, but it provides us an alternate path, one full of crates and guards with Night Vision.

It is interesting how ordinary guards with night vision turn out to be, to me they are effectively just guards that are always using their torches and actually the bigger obstacle they present is their immunity to the toxic gas found in my upgraded smoke bombs.

The final encounter in this level is particularly interesting, it is an escalating survive for at least 60 seconds scenario and one I am not entirely sure how I would have handled without the Mask of Nightmares. Do the guards raise the alarm during this encounter? I wouldn't know because for me they simply panicked whenever they saw a corpse. I love that mask.

Ran of the Ninja - EP6 - Karajan Castled

YouTube Link

While we took out Kelly last time, Karajan made his escape but we have tracked him down to a castle somewhere in Eastern Europe. Between this episode and the last I replayed some of the older level tracking down scrolls and collectibles I had previously missed. I normally wouldn't really bother with that kind of thing but I have been enjoying the game enough that I have wanted to play it more often than I have had chances to record.

This means I have started to unlock more masks which let you tinker more with your play style. I had assumed initially that masks would be locked for the entire level, so picking that would also predetermine your approach, but actually any time you can requip (at the various black flag) you can select a new mask, you it really only determines your approach for that section.

Really wish I could see the seals when I make the selection though, especially at the start of a given level, some seals are basically impossible to obtain with particular masks (especially the swordless stealthy mask).

Ran of the Ninja - EP5 - Killing Kelly

YouTube Link

With our distraction set up it is time to make our move against our well secured foe. But before we really get at Karajan we have to take out his lieutenant Kelly, the man who personally lead the attack on Mark's ninja village.

I quite like that Kelly is a puzzle boss, you can't straight up fight him, you can't even stealth kill him without disabling him first. It felt good to drop the light on him and I am actually glad there isn't an option to let him live, the entire context of the game is that you are a ninja and complete pacifism doesn't make sense here. A stealthy assassin that only goes after their target and key figures in their power structure is definitely a trope that you can play you instead.

Ran of the Ninja - EP4 - I'm A Monster

YouTube Link

Much like the previous episode, this level felt a bit like a bait and switch, I anticipated setting the building alight to be more like breaking the transformer in an earlier level, a minor objective on the way to a bigger goal, instead it is literally the entire purpose of this level.

My favourite scene is one I could never have set up deliberately at the time, guards have two possible responses when they find a body, they can be calm and raise the alarm or they can panic, stumble backwards and fire into the dark. Honestly not sure how I triggered the latter response here, I can do so more reliably now, but mostly by dropping corpses into the light or other ways making the discovery of the body more... interesting.

It was amazingly satisfying to do here it was a completely different way to clear the room and I felt like an awesome deadly assassin striking from the dark in a completely different way compared to ghosting the level made me feel in episode 3.

Ran of the Ninja - EP3 - Quiet As A Ghost

YouTube Link

How much violence you want to commit in Mark of the Ninja is pretty much up to you, so far there is no one you actually have to kill, in fact you can if you want try to sneak past everyone. Seemed like a fun time so I tried it here and it worked pretty well for me. In fact I found it a little bit faster since my priority was getting past guards without being spotted rather than killing every last one of them via stealth kills.

Interestingly enough you actually forgo honour if you try this route, a lot of the seals in this game are based around enemy kills. I guess you are a ninja after all, you are meant to be an assassin not a just a thief or a spy.

Later on you unlock costumes which let you tailor your play a bit more based on what you enjoy, but I will leave off talking more about it until later.

Ran of the Ninja - EP2 - Breaching the Perimeter

YouTube Link

One of the things that caught me off guard was how long each individual level takes in Mark of the Ninja and upon reflection I think I have worked out why. Each set of levels marks a single mission and each level merely a stage of a given mission. The tutorial is an exception in how self contained it is.

As a result each level sets up it's own goal near the start which you achieve during it, it is a little bit more narratively confusing here because as the first level of a set, it is both setting up the overall mission as well as the goal for the level itself which is why I was surprised achieving what I had thought of as a subgoal took so long.

Maybe if there had been more separation between the mission set up and the level set up I would have ended up less confused?

On a narrative note we learn this level that gaining The Mark is both a great honour but also a death sentence, it is the kind of thing that is only used in a time of great need. The question is why do I start the game with the Mark then? What actually kicked this whole thing off? The raid against the village was pretty clearly in response to something. But I don't yet know why.

Ran of the Ninja - EP1 - A Rude Awakening

YouTube Link

Time to kick off another Let's Play series. Mark of the Ninja has been sitting in my backlog for quite a while and I am not entirely sure why. It has a great reputation and involves sneaking around as a ninja which is definitely a thing I am in favour of in games.

Admittedly the only time I went to play Mark of the Ninja prior to this LP I did fall afoul of a minor issue I find in a lot of game, the assumption that just because a controller is plugged in I want to use it. If you have a controller plugged in it will only give you controller prompts and I had quite forgotten about having one plugged in at the time so it was extra frustrating to get the wrong inputs suggested. I really wish more games would move between controller and keyboard inputs smoothly, where the prompts are based on the most recently used input device rather than just what is plugged in.

This episode covers the tutorial level, which introduces most of the basics the game uses, light/dark, vents, sound and stealth kills and wall climbing. It does a nice job introducing them to you one step at a time building towards Mark being a fully capable ninja by the end.

Star Realms Diaries - EP3 - An Ark Full of Needles

YouTube Link

Shortly after the Gambits expansion for Star Realms was released Jarenth and I decided it was a great excuse to record another episode of the Star Realms Diaries. Unfortunately various delays meant this episode wasn't released in quite as close to the expansion release than I would have liked, and this blog post is of course even later, but life goes on.

I really like the changes brought in via Gambits. I had played enough games that the new variation in the card pool was very welcome and the new emphasis on bases has really shifted how often I purchase them. Previously I had a very ship heavy approach to my strategy and now I find myself really emphasizing bases, using them to shield myself from enemy attacks as well as triggering the new cycle of bases that trigger on bases being played.

The new gambit cards are definitely a bit more of a mixed bag, I find them most powerful when you can use them to grab an early game advantage ideally by grabbing a powerful card in the first couple of turns. But generally results in me being disappointed when I end up with some of the gambit cards that simply aren't suited to that kind of play. Some of them are definitely weaker than others and I never feel happy to have received them.

This was a fun game and it is one I am still regularly playing with friends, in general I have about 7 games running at any one time if you want to play me just send a challenge to Ranneko.

Ranslinger - EP11 - Ghosts of A Violent Past

YouTube Link

With this we finish off Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. The ghosts in the final chapter are a very strange addition, really pushing Silas over the edge into madness. He seems to have gotten better by the time of the framing narrative but who knows what would push him back over.

I had a great time with Gunslinger and really wish there was more information available on how and why it was made. I definitely think it was stronger for its framing narrative and its willingness to strip things back and present a mechanically satisfying short western themed shooter.

As a thought experiment if they had gone for a more standard approach I think this is roughly the structure I would predict:

1. Riding with Silas's brothers, maybe dealing with some kind of ambush. (NB Need horse riding or justification for no horses)
Finish with reaching a town, cue cut scene with gambling and wild bunch, end with hanging
2. Silas trekking back to town and taking off after his brothers killers

At this point the exact ordering would be a bit trickier, but definitely you would mix in going after the wild bunch with having various regular bounty hunting style of levels.

Not sure you could pull of having a barkeep Bob with this set up, you would need to justify a big action scene like in the second last level and Bob as the barkeep loses a lot of impact without the framing narrative. So maybe you actually have Bob be in that final graveyard fight, perhaps finish with a deliberate double kill so Silas dies fulfilling his revenge.

Ranslinger - EP10 - A Vista Full of Snipers

YouTube Link

This episode we take a trip to the mountains, fulfil Grey Wolv's prophecy and take down Jim Reed, leaving us with only the mysterious Bob left, a fella who seems to be near impossible to find and take down.

This is one of the sillier levels in that Silas is clearly pretty drunk right now and his mood is trending to the melancholy, He is definitely gearing up for the end of his tale, which will happen next time on Ranslinger.

Ranslinger - EP9 - An Express Robbery

YouTube Link

In this episode of Ranslinger we complete the third and final train related level. This time the train is moving, which results in me paying significantly less attention to it most of the time. Makes me wonder if it loops and if so how often.

I really like the scene where Silas wanders off to the bathroom. Both for the speculation by his audience but also for the endless looping slow motion carriage. It was a fun way to spend time listening to the banter, certainly much better than freezing my camera.

I really should read up on Jesse James, I am kind of curious as to just how one would go about robbing a train running across the countryside.

Ranslinger - EP8 - Keep on Training

YouTube Link

Train robberies are another archetypical western plot so it probably shouldn't be surprising that 3 levels of Gunslinger revolve around trains and train robberies. It makes for some pretty linear levels, but a lot of door kicking which feels pretty nice.

We also finally get to find out just why Silas is so keen to track down Roscoe Bob Bryant. Gunslinger like a lot of games reveals a motivation for the player character that doesn't really have any reason to bleed over to the player. Sila's brothers are only introduced in a cutscene that also kills them off, there is no time spend developing them or interacting with them. They are a key formative event in Silas's past but I am not Silas, I am merely controlling him in the fight scenes.

I don't really consider it a problem in this game, because it is such a short and linear game and at least we have had time to get attached to Silas himself, had they pulled it off in the beginning then it would have been worse.